Table 1
Co-design phase: identifying opportunities and barriers for better integrated care.
| OPPORTUNITIES | BARRIERS |
|---|---|
| Interest for more relevant and targeted health information | Low health literacy and lack of knowledge regarding health services and pathways |
| Motivation to support neighbours and community members. | Red tape and navigation issues (patient and service-level factor) |
| Interest from residents in being more in control of their health and develop capacity to help each other. | Rising levels of social vulnerability and rising levels of complex care needs (e.g. mental health management and addictions) |
| SLHD committed to place-based working and collaboration with residents. | Increased social isolation post pandemic |
Table 2
Mixed methods design.
| Mixed-methods study | Qualitative data | Semi-structured interviews | 14 peer educators5 health and social care staff(July–September 2023) | Analysis – deductive and inductive approach |
| Observations | Training modules for peer educators (13 × 3 hr) Reflection session with peer educators (2 hr, May 2023) Community-based activities led by peer educators(10 × 1.5 hr) Staff debrief sessions(8 instances; 20–30 min each) Findings validation session with peer educators (1 hr, December 2023) | |||
| Documents | Promotion material Training material Activity reports Correspondence from implementation team members, partner services and organisations | |||
| Feedback forms | Feedback forms completed by peer educators post training sessions (n = 29) | |||
| Quantitative data | Survey post-training | n = 11 (2023) | Analysis-Descriptive analysis | |
| Participation rate and reach for community-based activities | Results recorded by implementation team |
Figure 1
Impacts on peer educators (see supplementary material 3 for survey details).
Table 3
Perceived impacts of the Waterloo peer educator program.
| Impacts on peers and community |
|
| Impacts on health system |
|
Figure 2
Mechanisms enabling successful peer education program outcomes.
Figure 3
Lessons learned (practice focused).